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What Distinguishes A Hero From A Villain?

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What distinguishes a hero from a villain? When assessing William Tecumseh Sherman’s goals and actions on the battle field, the lines aren’t always so clear. General Sherman commanded the Union army during the bloodiest war in American history: the Civil War. His march to the sea during the fall and winter of 1864 stands out as one of the pivotal successes for the Union, because of the brilliant tactics used to expose weakness in the Confederacy. Cutting off his supply lines, he led 62,000 soldiers from Atlanta to Savanna to demoralize the southern people. The actions Sherman took in order to successfully accomplish his goals during his march were undeniable examples of barbarity, using brilliant schemes to suffocate the southern spirit. …show more content…

Some would argue that Sherman’s reluctance to face the Confederate army head on would make the march fairly peaceful. After all, he avoided bloodshed; however instead of facing of with an army, he faced off with the people, practicing psychological warfare, instead of waging a physical battle against the Confederacy. Yet this type of warfare didn’t fail to devastate the south. He successfully made the southern people fear his army so much, that Confederate wives begged their husbands to come home so the war would end and “told one South Carolina woman that he was ransacking her plantation so that her soldier husband would come home and Grant would not have to kill him in the trenches at Petersburg” (Groce). Sherman’s genius approach to show his army’s power through destruction of property instead of the through slaughtering men on the battlefield is quite ironic, considering the Civil War was one of the bloodiest battles in history; however, it created a big blow to the south, convincing the people to give up. From the words of Sherman himself, “If the people raise a howl against barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking. If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop the war” (Mitchell). He admits to his brutality, declaring that to stop the burning of plantations and destruction, the civilians must give up. Sherman recognized that the fuel to any war was the people. (expand) The brutality he brought to the southern

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